Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Trish Hennessy is on board for an Occupy Canada movement:

To my friends adopting a wait-and-see approach, I say: The least they can expect from progressives who have been criticizing the system (some since Woodstock) is a little help from their friends.

Occupy Wall Street, and the emerging movements flowing into Canada, is evidence that our democracy is alive and well; and that democracy happens in between trips to the ballot box, not just at election time.

The ground is heavily contested and powerful elites are counting on us to stay at home, turn on the TV, and passively judge whether the ‘reality TV' of real-life public demonstrations is worth pinning our hopes on or not.

The revolution is finally going to be televised but dude, do you seriously want to watch it from the comfort of your couch at home? Or do you want to be a part of it?

- The Star and the Globe and Mail both decry the Cons' regressive anti-labour positioning. Meanwhile, Rod Mickleburgh notes that Lisa Raitt may end up putting herself out of a job in the process of attacking unions and workers at every turn.

- Barrie McKenna notes that the tax-goodie model for corporate research and development has proven to be a miserable failure - which figures to be particularly problematic when our current federal government won't stand for the type of direct investment that actually produces results.

- Finally, a double dose of Dan Gardner. First, he criticizes the Cons' war on knowledge. And in tweets assembled by pogge, he points out how the Cons' dumb-on-crime policies include direct discrimination against property renters.